Tag: Industry - Page 11
News Monkey Ball And Yakuza Creator Toshihiro Nagoshi Has Formed His Very Own Studio
In partnership with Chinese giant, NetEase
As had been suspected following his departure from Sega last year, Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi has teamed up with Chinese gaming giant NetEase to form a brand new development studio. NetEase has today announced the establishment of Nagoshi Studio Inc., where Nagoshi himself will...
News Xbox Boss "Trusts" Nintendo To Not Do Anything That Would Harm The Games Industry
...after Microsoft gobbled up Activision for $70 billion
Unless you're been living under a rock for the past week, you'll be aware that the biggest news in gaming at present surrounds Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard, the publisher of franchises like Call of Duty, Warcraft, Skylanders and Crash Bandicoot. The $68.7 billion acquisition...
News Devs Speak Out Against Crunch Culture At LEGO Star Wars Developer TT Games
“It was a very soft-spoken blackmail"
The upcoming LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga game has just received its release date of April 5th, delighting fans that have been waiting for news for a while now. After all, the game — which includes playable levels and scenarios from all nine films in the mainline Star Wars saga — has been delayed...
News First Activision, Now EA? FIFA Publisher Is Tipped For Takeover
The Financial Times thinks EA is a target
Microsoft has just splashed $70 billion to buy Activision Blizzard following its 2020 acquisition of Bethesda, which seems to suggest that we're entering a period of serious consolidation, the likes of which haven't been seen since the '90s. Given this backdrop,
News Bobby Kotick Considered Buying Game Websites To "Change The Public Narrative" Around Activision
No news is good news?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick was considering the purchase of gaming sites Kotaku and PC Gamer in order to "change the public narrative" around his company. Activision has been at the centre of allegations regarding workplace cultu
News Activision Blizzard Boss To Leave When Xbox Deal Is Done, Report Claims
Bye bye, Bobby
In case you somehow missed it, Microsoft is acquiring Activision Blizzard for around $70 billion. One question that everyone is still asking though, is what's going to happen to Bobby Kotick, the CEO of the Call of Duty and Warcraft giant? According to a story over on The Wall Street Journal (paywall), Kotick is expected to be shown...
News Prominent Gaming YouTubers' Likenesses Sold As NFTs Without Consent
"Demonstrates everything I've said about how disrespectful and exploitative this market is"
Update: It seems that your favourite Nintendo-focused website has also found its way onto the OpenSea market place in the form of a MarbleCard — a somewhat less obnoxious and troubling form of image theft, but nonetheless unauthorised and unapproved...
News PlatinumGames Appoints New CEO, Aims To Deliver 'Innovative Forms Of Play'
Atsushi Inaba takes the reins as Kenichi Sato steps down
PlatinumGames President and CEO, Kenichi Sato, has stepped down from his position as head of the company after five years and eight months in the role and will be replaced by current studio head and vice-president, Atsushi Inaba, who has been with the Japanese developer since its inception...
News Sega Has Established A New Development Studio In Japan
Will be led by Takaya Segawa
Sega, the video game company behind Sonic the Hedgehog and the Yakuza series, has established a new studio in Sapporo, Japan. It's been set up in response to the rapid expansion of the games industry and will be Sega's second development base in the country. According to the official website, 'Sega Sapporo' is made up...
News Overwatch 2 LEGO Set Gets Shelved Following Activision Blizzard Lawsuit
"We are currently reviewing our partnership," says LEGO
The LEGO Overwatch 2 "Titan" set pictured above was scheduled to come out next month, but The LEGO Group has decided to postpone the release following accusations of harassment, discrimination, and misconduct at the California-based offices of Activision Blizzard. Activision Blizzard, the...
Talking Point As Lifetime Switch Sales Jostle With The Mighty Wii, Can It Possibly Catch DS?
Well, it depends...
The benefit of hindsight makes it easy to declare that the Switch was a masterstroke in design that could not fail. That'd be revisionism, of course, as Nintendo released the system against a rather challenging backdrop in early 2017. The Wii U had been a failure, and that's not hyperbole — it managed lifetime sales of just...
News Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Wants Cross-Platform User Bans
To stop abusive players skipping between systems
It seems normal now, but you don't have to go too far back to get to a time when the concept of cross-play - online multiplayer across different platforms - was fanciful. Each console, PC and mobile platform operated in their own bubble, splitting up userbases and gaming communities. The huge growth...
News GTA Publisher Take-Two Buys Farmville Giant Zynga For $12.7B
A record-breaking acquisition
Take-Two Interactive Software is acquiring Zynga in a $12.7 billion deal, the two companies confirmed on Monday, 10th January. That colossal sum includes Take-Two paying $9.86 per share, plus Zynga's debt, in order for the company to make moves into the mobile market. This deal is now the largest sum of money paid out...
News Analyst Predicts 2024 Release Date For Next-Gen Nintendo Switch Successor
And that Switch Pro is a no go
With all of the rumours regarding the infamous 'Switch Pro' and the eventual release of the Switch OLED model last year, we've hardly had a chance to think about Nintendo's true next generation of hardware. For the past year or two, the Switch has been described on
News The Studio Behind Excite Truck And Excitebots Has Been Acquired By iRacing
Monster Games will "bring another level of expertise" to the company
Monster Games, a studio Nintendo fans will likely know from the Wii days thanks to Excite Truck and Excitebots, has been acquired by iRacing Motorsport Simulations, it's been announced. The developer, which released games exclusively on Nintendo platforms for almost a decade...
Bring it
Video game companies around the globe have been preparing for 2022 for some time now, and it includes Koei Tecmo. In an end-of-year 4Gamer feature, the Japanese company teased what's to come in the new year. Apparently, it intends to reveal a number of projects that have been in development for several years and will pave the way for the...
News Sakurai Thinks It's Probably Best To Forget About Him For A While
If anything is in the pipeline it might take some time
Masahiro Sakurai was able to complete Super Smash Bros. Ultimate this year, but from here on out, it's not clear what's next. Although he's apparently not thinking about a new Smash Bros. entry right now, that doesn't mean he'll rule it out. He's also not even sure about his future in video...
News NFL Coach, Broadcaster And Video Game Icon John Madden Passes Away At 85
Will be remembered as an "absolute legend"
NFL coach and broadcaster John Madden has passed away at the age of 85. He not only had a huge impact on American football but also the video game industry as the voice, name and face of Electronic Arts' Madden NFL series. The sports series originally began life in 1988 as "John Madden Football" and over...
Feature Developers Respond To The Recent Twitter Furore Over The Definition Of 'Game Dev'
A little more context than 280 characters can cope with
Last week, a Twitter debate broke out over the exact definition of a 'game developer' and to whom that term can be ascribed. Should the title be extented to anyone contributing to the development of the game or be reserved solely for those with direct creative input? Are QA staff 'developers'...
News Inti Creates Had A Mega Man ZX3 Game In Development, But It Got Cancelled
The project was well underway
Apparently, there was going to be a third Mega Man ZX game but the project was ultimately cancelled. During an Inti Creates Christmas live stream, company president Takuya Aizu and designer Yoshihisa Tsuda revealed the third entry was code-named "ZXC" and that the title was well into its development cycle. Here's part...
News Global Chip Shortages And Supply Issues To Continue Into 2023, Says Intel Boss
"exploding demand has persisted"
We've already heard how supply and production issues in the tech industry won't be improving anytime soon, and now Intel chief Pat Gelsinger has issued yet another reminder that the shortage of semiconductors will likely continue into 2023. "The overall semiconductor shortage is quite significant and the...
News Ubisoft Staff Are Leaving Their Jobs In Droves, Report Claims
"It's legitimately embarrassing"
A new report by Stephen Totilo of Axios claims that there's currently an exodus of staff at troubled publisher Ubisoft. According to the report, at least five of the top 25-credited people from the company's biggest 2021 game, Far Cry 6, have already left Ubisoft's ranks. Furthermore, 12 of the top 50 staffers on
News Sonic's Co-Creator Yuji Naka Made A New Game, And You Can Play It Right Now
The catch? It's a mobile release
After the release of Balan Wonderworld earlier this year, Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka announced in September he had started developing simple mobile games with Unity. Now, just months later, he's done it - for the "first time" in 37 years, he's made a game all by himself - and he wants everyone to
And so Kinect was born
Xbox's new six-part documentary series celebrating the 20 year history of Microsoft's console gaming division has a lot of company secrets and industry insights and one highlight from a Nintendo perspective is a brief segment about motion gaming in Chapter 5. In the holiday 2006, Nintendo launched its new motion-controlled...
News Nintendo Is Investing In Office Space In Japan To House More Game Development
Nintendo HQ 2: HQ Reloaded
Once upon a time, Nintendo was a little playing card company, located in a regular-sized office building in Kyoto, Japan. They're a bit bigger now, and you may have seen their boring-but-iconic Kyoto headquarters before: It's a big white cube covered in windows. But it looks like there's about to be a second big cube...
News The Game Awards GOTY For 2021 Is 'It Takes Two' By Hazelight Studios
Metroid Dread takes out best action adventure game
The Game Awards has just wrapped up for another year and the winner is 'It Takes Two' developed by Hazelight Studios and published by EA. It also took out the best family and multiplayer awards. The GOTY award was presented by Naughty Dog's president Neil Druckmann and accepted by the game's...
Talking Point Are Nintendo's Exclusives Enough To Win A Next-Gen Handheld War?
The 'next Switch' will need to match the current system's all-round strengths
When it comes to the world of entertainment technology, everyone likes to get ahead of themselves. Everything is 'the next big thing', until about a year later, that is, when it's evident that the tech isn't ready yet. Augmented reality and virtual reality are good...
News The Summer Game Fest Returns In 2022
More will be shared at The Game Awards
It's been announced the Summer Game Fest will be returning in 2022...next Summer. There are no other details just yet, but apparently, more information will be revealed during The Game Awards. Geoff Keighley - the host and organiser of both events - shared the following message (below) on Twitter as part of...
News Reggie Fils-Aimé To Lead "Blank Check Company” Focused On Gaming And Digital Media
Designed to support and help companies to go public
Reggie Fils-Aimé recently hosted and chaired a livestream roundtable to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Xbox, which was interesting not only as an insight into the era of its original launch, but to see what some former gaming executives are doing now. Fils-Aimé, for his part, has remained...
News Metroid Dread Developer MercurySteam Announces Its Next Game, Codenamed "Project Iron"
"a third person action RPG set in a dark fantasy world"
If you've been wondering what the developer MercurySteam is up to now that Metroid Dread is available on the Nintendo Switch, it appears it's already got a brand-new game in the works. The Spanish-based studio is teaming up with Digital Bros and its publishing division 505 Games for a new...
News Updated Nintendo Policies Push For Increased Transparency And Diversity
Also expands procedures for dismissal of Directors
Recent weeks and months have brought a lot of attention to allegations of misconduct at Activision Blizzard, with a leaked email from Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser reacting and explaining that "every company in the industry must create an environment where everyone is respected and...
News Nintendo Of America Employee Says Goodbye After More Than A Decade
"I will remain a Nintendo fan and gamer forever"
Last month, a report from Kotaku revealed Nintendo had shut down its branches located in California and Toronto. At the time, it was also confirmed Nintendo of America's SVP of Sales and Marketing, Nick Chavez, would be moving on. Chavez has now taken to social media to thank Nintendo for his time at...
Random Xbox's 20th Anniversary 'Metaverse' Acknowledges The Time It Tried To Acquire Nintendo
And the rest is history
Update: Our friends at Eurogamer have gone an extra step and transcribed part of the letter from within Xbox's virtual museum. The letter was sent by Xbox's Rick Thompson to NoA's business boss Jacqualee Story and attempts to set up a meeting with Nintendo's boss Hiroshi Yamauchi and hardware chief Genyo Takeda. "Dear...
News Epic Games Acquires Harmonix, Makers Of Rock Band, To Work On Fortnite
Rockfort Bandnite
In the latest tale of giant-company-buys-smaller-studio, Epic Games has acquired Harmonix — a "monumental" deal that will welcome the 26-year-old Rock Band developer into Epic's growing stable of studios that also includes Rocket League developer, Psyonix. In a developer blog published on Tuesday, 23rd November, Harmonix...
Random Reggie Fils-Aimé Admits He Bought Xbox Over GameCube As He Hosts 20th Anniversary Panel
"I actually didn't buy a GameCube until I was already part of Nintendo"
Reggie Fils-Aimé has done all sorts of things since he retired from his role as Nintendo of America's president in 2019, and his latest temporary gig is well worth watching if you love learning about the history of the video game industry. The man who made a name for himself...
"They run counter to my values as well as Nintendo’s beliefs"
Update: Nintendo has now officially confirmed this in a PR response to Fanbyte: “We can confirm the content of Doug Bowser’s internal email to Nintendo of America staff is accurate. We have nothing further to share on this topic.” Nintendo of America's president Doug Bowser...
But only if the issues cannot be fixed "with speed"
Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick has said he would be open to quitting his role at the head of the company if the firm's ongoing issues cannot be solved "with speed". Kotick's comments came during a meeting with Activision Blizzard executives late last week, the Wall St Journal reports...
News Playtonic's Original Yooka-Laylee Game Is Getting A Follow-Up Title
A new adventure is on the way
In a bit of a shock announcement earlier this week, Playtonic - the UK developer comprised of former Rare veterans and known for titles such as Yooka-Laylee - revealed Chinese video game giant Tencent had acquired a minority stake in the business. If it's got you wondering what's to come, in an interview with friends...
News Activision Blizzard Employees Stage A Walkout Calling For CEO Bobby Kotick's Resignation
Update: Over 1300 employees sign a petition calling for Kotick to go
Update: More than 1300 Activision Blizzard employees have signed a petition demanding that CEO Bobby Kotick resign in the wake of this week's Wall Street Journal report alleging his failure to act on knowledge of misconduct at studios within the company. At the time of writing,...
News Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Calls For Industry-Wide Support Of Game Preservation Via Emulation
"My hope is as an industry we'd work on legal emulation"
Xbox, as you might have heard, is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary. As part of this head of Xbox Phil Spencer has been doing a lot of interviews with media outlets this week - discussing the past, present and future. In his latest chat with Axios, he's passed on a message to the...
News Phil Spencer: Elder Scrolls 6's Xbox Exclusivity Isn't About "Punishing" Other Platforms
The head of Xbox just wants to deliver a "complete package"
Bethesda, as you might recall, was officially acquired by Microsoft earlier this year for the sum of $7.5 billion. It's naturally raised a lot of concerns about the future of Bethesda games on other platforms, like the Nintendo systems. While we previously heard how future Bethesda titles...
"We are thrilled to democratize these industry-leading tools"
Unity Technologies, the company behind the game engine of the same name, is purchasing the tech assets of Peter Jackson's Weta Digital VFX house, it has been revealed. The two firms have entered into a definitive agreement that will see Unity acquire Weta Digital's proprietary technology...
Soapbox Can We Please Retire The Phrase 'Lazy Devs' Already?
A tough job under difficult circumstances
There’s one magic word that gets trotted out all the time in this hobby, a handy term used to describe all digital ills — lazy. ‘How did this bleh of a game end up on the eShop?’ ‘Who couldn’t be bothered to finish this puzzle / minigame / character’s face properly?’ ‘How much more effort...
Talking Point Switch Is A Juggernaut, But Nintendo Will Still Feel Investor Pressure
Production issues and no 'Pro' will remain topics
Today brought the Q2 Nintendo financial results, which would be easy to miss with the understandable excitement of Animal Crossing: New Horizons version 2.0 arriving a day early. In some ways they're results with two sides, though within Nintendo's boardroom they may feel like they're somewhat stuck...
News EA Boss Says NFTs Will Be An "Important Part" Of The Games Industry's Future
"It's still early to figure out how that's going to work"
Recently, Ubisoft stated that it wants to be one of the key players in the world of video game-related NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and now publishing rival Electronic Arts has noted that it too is looking at how to breaking into "play to earn" market. During an earnings call this week, EA...
News Niantic's Pokémon GO-Style Harry Potter Mobile Game Is Being Shut Down
Was active for just over two years
Niantic has banked an incredible amount of money with its mobile hit Pokémon GO, but it seems it's been unable to recreate this same level of success with the Harry Potter title, Wizards Unite. In an update on the game's official website yesterday, Niantic announced it would officially shut down the game on 31st...
News Sega And Microsoft Are Teaming Up To Make "Super Games"
Sonic the Cloudhog
Metaverses are so hot right now, and it looks like Sega is making the moves to create their own. You might know the concept of 'metaverse' from Fortnite, Space Jam, or Ready Player One — it's basically a hub where you can find all of your favourite brands and fictional characters, all in the same place. Unsurprisingly, with...
News Ubisoft Wants To Be "One Of The Key Players" In Blockchain Gaming
"We think it's going to grow the industry quite a lot"
Last week Ubisoft gave its Q2 earnings presentation for investors outlining its fortunes so far this financial year (not bad) and detailed its outlook for the rest of 2021 and the future. As reported by IGN, the gaming giant is looking to explore the potential of blockchain gaming in a...
News Nintendo Shuts Down Offices In California And Toronto
SVP of Sales and Marketing has also moved on
A report from Kotaku has revealed that Nintendo has shut down its branches located in California and Toronto. Nintendo America's SVP of Sales and Marketing, Nick Chavez, will also be moving on - revealing on LinkedIn he's joined KFC and the Yum! Brand. Nintendo America shared the following statement...
News Flame In The Flood Developer Acquired By CD Projekt Group
Studio already working on "ambitious project" based on CDP IP
The Polish video game company CD Projekt Group - known for titles such as The Witcher III and Cyberpunk 2077 - has acquired the US-based developer The Molasses Flood. This studio is perhaps best known for the survival-building base games The Flame in the Flood, and more recently Drake...